One day it will turn out that everyone was always against

Omar El Akkad

The book won the 2025 National Book Award in the Nonfiction category.

On October 25, 2023, after just three weeks of bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad posted on Twitter: "One day, when it's safe, when calling things by their name doesn't have unpleasant consequences, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, it will turn out that everyone was against it all along." This tweet was viewed 10 million times.
At the age of 16, El Akkad immigrated with his family to Canada, believing that the West promised true freedom. He thought it was a place of justice for all. However, over the past twenty years, reporting on the "war on terror," climate change, Black Lives Matter protests, and many other momentous events, and above all, observing the unstoppable slaughter in Gaza, El Akkad came to the conclusion that much of what the West promises is a lie, that there will always be entire masses of those whom the West does not see or treat as "people," that Arabs, Muslims, immigrants, and various other groups will never experience Western freedoms and privilege.

"One day it will turn out that everyone was against it all along" is a record of this painful realization of the truth, a record of moral struggles with what it means – as a US citizen and also a father – to try to find a sense of meaning and hope in a time of slaughter. It is, finally, an accusation and a heartbroken letter of separation from the West.

The above description is from the publisher.

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